Mad Magazine was the top humor and satire magazine of the 1950s and 1960s and one of the biggest selling magazines for young men and boys. It started to lose its influence in the mid 70s, when it lost the satire monopoly to magazines like the National Lampoon and TV's Saturday Night Live. An inexpensive way to read older issues is to get Mad Specials, which reprinted the early issues.

Hames Underwear for Men and Boys.
Advertising Slogans Will Replace Everyday Conversation.
The Price is All Right (TV Satire).
Don Martin -- The Man With the Sprung Neck, The Great Hotel Fire, The Escaped Convict.
Painting By the Numbers.
Treasury of Unknown Poetry II.
Testing Civilians for Space Flight.
Scenes and TV Ads We'd Like to See.
Handwriting Analysis.
Mad Looks at Adult Education.
Hide-A-Beds and Other Kinds of "Hide-A-Things".
Madison Avenue Turns to History and Literature.
Grandstand Football.
Teenage (Magazine Parody).
Back Cover -- Paying for a Diamond is Forever.

April 1960
$ .25
Kelly Freas Phonyex Mutual Life Insurance.
Ad Testimonials from Politicians.
How I Turned $6.85 into a Zillion.
Don Martin -- The Magician, The Hero, Uncle Herman and the Coke Machine.
Around the World With U.S. Television.
The Interpreter.
My Fair Ad-Man (Broadway Musical Satire).
Educational Billboards.
America is Getting Soft.
You Can Learn A Lot When You Go Through People's Garbage.
Distinctive Picket Lines.
Mail by Missile.
Doctors' Progress.
Movie Land (Magazine Parody).
Back Cover -- Aspire Boot-Lick Polish.

Aren't you glad you Dial correctly?
If Doctors Advertised.
Side-Show of "Modern Freaks".
Don Martin -- The Safe Crackers, The Wonderful New Dart Set.
Famous Lost Words.
How to Get Complete Newspaper Coverage.
Commercial Roulette.
How They Spent Their Summer.
New Service Organizations for a Lazy America.
The Two Faces of World War II.
The Parent - Resource Book For Kids.
TV's Wonder Dog Lizzie (TV Satire).
TV Ads We'd Like to See - The Polydent Commercial.
Back Cover -- Aarow Shirts.

$ .25 Flip cover. One side congratulates John Kennedy, the other side congratulates Richard Nixon, for winning the Presidency in 1960. Furd Foulcar.
Naked Town (TV Satire) .
Educational Toys.
Don Martin -- 20 Years in the Shipping Dept.
"Warm-Ups" to Everything.
Dieting.
Mad's College Songs and Cheers for Traitors, Defeatists, and Cowards.
The Mad Shakespear Primer.
The Producer and I (Movie Satire).
Spy Vs. Spy (First Appearance).
TeeVee U.
The European Tourist's Guide to the U.S.
A Mad Peak Behind the Scenes.

General Realistic TV.
The Total Sell.
The Population Explosion and How it Will Affect Future Living.
Don Martin -- A Guided Tour Through a Steel Foundry, Togetherness Through Music, In a French Restaurant.
How to Make Dull Reading Matter Interesting.
Greeting Cards with Enclosures.
The World's Greatest TV Panelist.
Up-To-Date Names for Rockets and Missiles.
Ladies' Home Journey (Magazine Satire).
Horseback Riding.
Mail Order Gift Catalogues.
Tomorrow's Parents.
The United Nations Awards Show.
Back Cover -- Sucker 61 Fountain Pens .

Take TNT and See.
If There'd Been a Madison Avenue Down Through History.
The Telephone -- Dave Berg.
Don Martin -- A Young Man's Ambition, Boarding the Uptown Bus, In the Doctor's Office, In the Penny Arcade.
Treasury of Unknown Poetry.
Guide for Baby Sitters.
The Daily Square -- A Newspaper for Discriminating "Nowhere" People.
The Business of Baseball.
The Typical Summer Resort Ad and the Actual Resort.
Sneaky Camera with Allan Funn (TV Satire).
A Career Awaits You in the Modern Army.
Scenes We'd Like to See.
Bedtime Stories as Told by "Job-Conscious" Fathers.
Back Cover -- Composition Book Cover.

March 1962
$ .25
Kelly Freas Liberty Mutilate Insurance Company.
Alfred's Poor Almanac.
If Babies Could Take "Parent Pictures".
Don Martin -- The Painter, At the Movies, The Guest of Royalty, The Hitchiker.
Mad Previews the Top News Stories of 1962.
Dave Berg -- The Dentist.
Fight Songs for Schools that Can't Afford Major Sports.
Spy Vs Spy.
Model Building Kits for Adults.
Padded Magazine Stories.
A Special "Feature Length" Mad Look at TV.
If Shows Were Like Their Capsuled Descriptions:
The Infernal Triangle
TV Ads We Never Got to See
The "Stone-Age" Trend on TV
Less Violent TV Shows
TV Dinners to Match the Shows
When Culture Comes to Top-Rated Shows.
Back Cover -- The Saturday Evening Post Allegedly Revamped

Mad Magazines have been published continually since the middle of the 20th century. All our Mad Magazines for sale come with a total money-back guarantee. As a result, if you're fan of Mad Magazine, and want to buy Mad Magazines, you're at the right place.

Why You Should Collect and BuyMad Magazines

Before there was a Saturday Night Live, The Onion, or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, there was Mad Magazine.

For two generations of adolescent boys, this was the irreverent, satirical hot spot in the American cultural world.

In a population of 180 million in the 1950's, Mad's circulation topped 1 million copies per month, with a readership of over 3 million.

Its success was widely imitated, but never surpassed in its first 25 years. Sick magazine, Plop!, and Cracked magazine all tried, without success, to come close to the biting satirical wit of Mad. If you ever want to study American culture in the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's or 1980's, back issues of Mad is the place to go for the counter-culture's take on then current events.

Founded in 1952, early issues featured the writing of top comics and comedians from all media. Ernie Kovacs, an early of star of TV, and Bob & Ray, the great radio comedy team, all wrote for Mad, as did Charles Schulz who created 'Peanuts', Jules Feiffer, Wil Eisner, Danny Kay, Stan Freberg, and Sid Caesar. For many years it was THE place to be seen by the elite comedy superstars.

Mad had a near-monopoly stranglehold on political and social satire in the 50's through 70's. In fact, in 2009 The New York Times wrote, "Mad once defined American satire". If you want to understand the roots of American comedy today, Mad really is required reading.

If it was a social issue in America, Mad dissected it with more depth and bite than Saturday Night Live or the Daily Show combined.

For teenagers growing up from 1952 to 1975, it was clearly the most important reading in your life if you were a skeptic, politically or socially aware, or if you wanted a career in comedy.

Looking at any back issue today reminds me of my rebellious teenage years, which many people will say were the best years of their lives. So, if you're looking for a gift for someone who has "everything", transport them back to their youth. I'm telling you, an old Mad Magazine from the time they were 10 to 14 years old, can't be beat.

Or if you're looking for a full perspective of American society from 1952 to today, Mad Magazine is the place to start.